Chinese Mayor in Graft Probe

Xu Zongheng had been put under shuanggui – a form of detention imposed on party officials, given his alleged links to Huang Guangyu, the founder of GOME and once ranked China’s richest man, the South China Morning Post reported citing several unnamed sources.

‘It must have something to do with economic irregularities… but it could also have something to do with a power struggle,’ a government source was quoted as saying by the Post.

Corruption investigations in China can be proxies for political struggles.

Xu would be the latest in a number of senior officials to be implicated in Huang’s graft investigation, triggered last year by alleged financial misconduct.